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Hey dude so we checked out Ooho! and found some interesting things on it.

First off, “spherification” is nothing new, it’s been around for a few decades, and we actually ate food that had been “spehrified” years ago in Spain. Chefs at El Bulli used to do it to make liquids hold a shape using a membrane.

Ooho also claims that their containers are cheaper than bottles, since it only costs them about 2 cents to make a membrane. As we know, most of the cost of a bottle of water is in the bottle, not the water itself. With the use of either reverse osmosis or purple light, or just boiling it, firms can claim that their water is 99.99% pure, and with vaporisation, there really isn’t much left in the water itself in regards to calcium/etc.

On the positive side of things, it’s a water bottle that doesn’t create any pollutants, and is cheaper than conventional water bottles – plastic bottles shouldn’t be re-used but people do re-use them as you know, so a key point here is the spreading of knowledge about bacteria that grow is plastic.

On the negative side, hygiene may be an issue. There are germs in your hands, hence we use utensils to eat, but if our hands are coming into direct contact with the gel containing the water, then what happens? Furthermore, you mentioned that carnivals/marathons would be a major market, but sweat/dirt going into your food doesn’t sound very hygienic to me. The company doesn’t seem to emphasise what type of water they use either, so for all we know, they could be freezing tap water for all we know. Then there is the issue of the membrane itself, which is made of a single strand polymer, which can be depolymerised my anything mildly acidic or alkaline. Which means that if you have your hands dipper in lemon juice beforehand… well go figure. There are bacteria that feed on algae as well, meaning that prolonged exposure would break the membrane.

On another note, they are attempting to change the way we drink water; we don’t eat water, instead we suck it in, differentiating us from animals who have to scoop water into our mouths using their tongues. But the semi-rigidity of a membrane doesn’t allow much “sucking” instead you have to swallow it hole, meaning you would need different sizes.

Lastly, common dude this membrane tech is covered in the Creative Commons License, meaning anyone that can get their hands on the materials required can make it. So unless they have an edge you have not mentioned… go figure. At best it’ll be a “flavour of the month” thing from what I can see.

This new discovery claims to have 8 times the power of Modafinil without the side affects that would be had were someone to take 8 Modafinil pills.

These side affects include: shaking, increased heart rate, and fevers

The drug has yet to be patented, and requires 100k euros to patent internationally. However from patent to market, it usually takes 10 years and around 100 million USD, which would end in human trial, and approval by the FDA if successful.

As it is rather impractical to wait 10 years for a drug to be approved, as well as the 100 million USD check, it would be assumed that the most reasonable method of exit would be the selling of such drug technology to either a large bio-tech related Private Equity firm, or a pharmaceutical company.

The deal maker/breaker would be the willingness of the pharmaceutical company to give royalties to the original seller, as this could potentially guarantee lifelong income. On the other hand, the most likely scenario would be the selling of the tech for a relatively large upfront payment, as royalties for drugs are rare and far between. Another way to receive this royalty without physically getting royalty would be to buy shares in the company, as this would not insider trading, but as it takes 10 years to get the drug to market, the lawsuit would not stand up in a court of law in most jurisdictions. A legal answer to this would be to get shares as well as cash when the sale is made.

The mission is to store every single piece of research that is done by our team, and compile it into an encyclopaedia which will be continuously built upon. As time passes, this will allow us to create a timeline of events that have happened in each sector, and will allow us to identify trends that successful startups exhibit from an early stage. Furthermore, we would also be able to identify potential industry trends, and weaknesses that appear when a model is no longer working.

As each of our investments develop and grow larger, analysts will be required to keep track of changes, and record them into this encyclopaedia under their respective companies.

Although many firms have tried to compile and identify trends in specific industries (e.g. Warren Buffet), no firm has created an in-depth log of the startup world, as the Venture Capital business is still relatively young compared to other industries.

Goals:

Research and compile data relevant to the industries we invest in, in alphabetical order, by industry, and geography.

The program created for this will incorporate the following:

Ability to find specific data by searching for either: Date, Industry, Company Name, or Writer

Ability to update existing documents as the companies progress

Ability to identify winners as they will be marked as we go

Ability to identify industries and firms that required high upfront capital